An increasing number of vehicles are being configured such that portable consumer electronic devices, for example, smart phones, may interface with the human machine interface (HMI) offered by the vehicle. The portable device, for example, a vehicle user's phone, may interface with the vehicle by projecting through a vehicle user interface, such as a navigation screen, where the output displayed on the vehicle user interface by the phone is that of the phone and not of the vehicle. Because the phone hardware and software can be readily updated, this provides the advantage that the hardware and software used to provide information to the vehicle user interface can be conveniently maintained and readily updated. However, because the user's phone controls the display, including the look-and-feel of the user interface as projected through the vehicle HMI, the graphical elements of the display are dictated by the user's phone, and are not controlled by the vehicle or vehicle manufacturer.
As part of their branding strategy, most vehicle manufacturers adopt a vehicle brand-specific look-and-feel for many styling elements of the vehicle design, which may include a vehicle brand-specific look-and-feel for the vehicle HMI elements, including the vehicle display. The vehicle brand specific look-and-feel may include vehicle specific styling of fonts, colors, etc., of the vehicle display. When the user's phone controls the look-and-feel of the vehicle HMI elements to project graphical information through the vehicle display, the vehicle brand-specific style guidelines are overridden, which is inconsistent with the vehicle manufacturer's branding strategy.